Prosecutors can't use evidence seized in search of church

TAVARES — Prosecutors can't use documents, photographs or other evidence seized in a search of St. Filumena Catholic Church to prove that a church nun took a child out of the country without permission.

Circuit Judge T. Michael Johnson ruled that Lake County sheriff's detectives exceeded the scope of a warrant that had given them limited authority to scour the Eustis church and sanctuary for evidence against the nun.

Asked how the decision affects the case against Laura Maria Caballero, who has pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and interference with child custody, defense lawyer Ron Fox said, "It certainly weakens it."

Prosecutors declined to comment on the ruling. The trial is set for Oct. 25.

Caballero, 53, better known as "Sister Mary" or "Sister Maria" to parishioners of her Eustis church, has denied she broke laws while caring for Maria Lopez Vazquez, the toddler she took to Argentina last winter.

She believed the parents were ill-equipped to properly care for the child.

The parents, Jose Juan Ochoa Avalos and Adai Lopez Vazquez, have admitted in depositions that they gave Caballero their blessing to take the child temporarily from South Carolina, where they were living, to Eustis. The child had spent much of her life with the nun, who was present at her birth. But the parents also complained that Caballero made excuses whenever they asked her to bring the child back to them. Caballero has said she believed she was protecting the child, who will turn 3 in January.

Fox said Caballero took good care of the child and that the parents also allowed her to obtain a passport for the girl — a document the parents were unlikely to use because they had entered the U.S. illegally.

Prosecutors contend Caballero used the passport and a fraudulent "power of attorney" to take the child out of the country without written permission from the parents, who had moved to Tennessee to pick tobacco. The parents did not sign the power-of-attorney document in the notary's presence, making it invalid.

Sheriff's detectives didn't specify what they found during the Feb. 12 search, although court records suggest they seized more than 1,500 documents, including photographs of Caballero and the child with Caballero's family in Argentina.

Caballero, whose church is not affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Orlando or the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, was arrested in January when she arrived in Miami from Argentina. The child was reunited days later with her parents. They had been separated about six months.

Caballero said she only wanted the child to be safe and happy.

"And now, the thing that's happening is that the police (want) to create a child-trafficking case that doesn't exist," Caballero said in a phone call to Lidia Barrera, the power-of-attorney notary who allowed detectives to record the conversation.